ROTARY’S BEGINNING - continued

The Beginnings of Rotary – continued from last month

The First Years of Rotary

Within a year, the Chicago club had become so large it became necessary to adopt the now-common practice of a regular meeting place

The next four rotary clubs were organized in cities in the western United States, beginning with San Francisco, then Oakland, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The National Association of Rotary Clubs in America was formed in 1910. In April 1912, Rotary chartered a club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, marking the first acknowledged establishment of an American-style service club outside the United States. To reflect the addition of a club outside the United States, the name was changed to the International Association of Rotary Clubs in 1912

In August 1912 the Rotary Club of London received its charter from the Association, marking the first acknowledged Rotary club established outside of North America. It later became known that the Dublin club in Ireland had been organised before the London club, its first meeting having been held on February 22, 1911, but the Dublin club di not receive its charter until after the London club was chartered.

During World War I, Rotary in Britain increased from 9 to 22 clubs, and other early clubs in other nations included those in Cuba in 1916, Philippines in 1919, and India in 1920 In 1922, the name was changed to Rotary International. By 1921, Rotary had grown to 2,106 clubs worldwide with110,500 members.

Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe

In Germany, no club had been formed before 1927, because of opposition from the continental clubs. For a while after 1933, Rotary clubs “met with approval” by Nazi authorities and were considered to “opportunity for party comrades … to provide enlightenment regarding the nature and policy of the National Socialist Movement.” The Nazis, though they saw international organizations as suspect, had authorized National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) members to be members of Rotary through the Nazi Party’s court rulings issued in 1933, 1934, and 1936. In 1937, more than half the German Rotarians were Nazi Party members.

Six German clubs were4 formed after Hitler came to power. They came under pressure almost immediately to expel their Jewish members.

Rotary Clubs do not appear to have had a unified policy towards the Nazi regime: while several German Rotary clubs decided to disband their organizations in 1933, others practiced a policy of appeasement or collaborated. In Munich, the club removed from its members’ list a number of Rotarians, Jewish, and non-Jewish, who were politically unacceptable for the regime, including Thomas Mann (already in exile in Switzerland). Twelve members resigned in sympathy with the expelled members.